Fort Lupton (35 page)

“
She must be famous ’cuz
there’s a movie camera,” Miranda said.

Jabari’s finger painting was going to be
really nice. He was carefully moving the blue paint jar over his
clean, bare sheet when an adult’s grabbed his arm. The hand jerked
his arm. The top flew off the paint jar and the blue paint went
everywhere. Miranda screamed at the top of her lungs at the same
moment Stephen laughed.

Jabari watched in horror as the blue paint
flew up in the air. While the hand tugged him out of his seat, the
blue paint dropped onto the table and the kids around him. A glob
of paint landed in Miranda’s hair and ran down her face. Stephen
had turned toward the person yanking on Jabari, so the paint had
sprayed over his glasses. Melvin looked up just as a drop of paint
fell on his red nose.

His bare, clean sheet of paper was now
coated with a spray of blue paint.

Jabari screamed, and a hand slapped him
across the face. He looked up to see who had slapped him.

Annette.

“
No! No! No!” Jabari
screamed.

Her hand slapped him again.

“
Ma’am, I need to ask you
. . .” a man’s voice said.

Jabari saw the security guard grab onto the
arm Annette wasn’t holding him with. When the security guard yanked
on Annette’s arm, Jabari flew into the air. Blue paint flew out of
the jar and sprayed kids at other tables.

“
You have no right!”
Annette yelled at the security guard.

Jabari was falling toward the ground. He
came down in the teacher’s arms. Annette yanked on his arm and the
security guard pulled on her, and all the while the teacher was
holding tight onto his body.

“
ENOUGH!” the teacher said
in a scary, loud voice. “I did not survive the blasting sand and
scorching heat of Iraq to watch spoiled adults hurt babies
here
in
Denver.”

Annette was so surprised by the teacher’s
loud voice that she let go of Jabari’s arm. The security guard
grabbed hold of Annette’s upper arms. The teacher wrapped herself
around Jabari.

“
Get her out of here,” the
teacher said.

“
Yes, ma’am,” the security
guard said.

“
And call the police,” the
teacher said. “I want to report her assault on a child and
disrupting our peace.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” the security
guard said.

Never letting go of Annette, the security
guard leaned close to the teacher.

“
Cassie?” the security
guard said in a low voice. “You’ve got blue
. . .”

His hands full with Annette, the security
guard used his nose to gesture to the teacher’s face. Her hand went
to her face and she felt the wet paint.

Miranda stopped screaming and Stephen
stopped laughing and Annette stopped screeching and the security
guard stopped talking. The room was suddenly very still.

Jabari pulled his sleeve down over his hand.
He reached up and wiped the blue paint from his teacher’s ivory
cheek. The teacher looked down at him and started to laugh.

When the teacher laughed, the kids started
to laugh. Melvin tossed the orange paint out of the jar. The paint
flew into the air and showered down. Miranda started screaming
again. Stephen picked up the green and followed Melvin’s lead. Kids
at every table began to throw paint in the air. The paint flew
through the air while the security guard dragged Annette out of the
room.

The principal came in. Rather than get mad,
she organized the kids to help clean up. By the time parents came
to get their kids, they were coated head to toe in paint. Even
Miranda.

All the while, the teacher held on to Jabari
for comfort, and he let her.

Take it in

“
She did
what
?” Yvonne
exclaimed.

Yvonne screeched into the microphone of her
computer. Tanesha waved her hand to encourage Yvonne to lower her
voice. Yvonne gave her a dark scowl. They were talking to each
other on a video call.

“
You’re
breakin
’ my ears,” Tanesha repeated
what she always said.

Yvonne grinned.

“
Jabari’s with Jer in the
kitchen,” Tanesha said. “They’re baking a cake.”

“
What?” Yvonne asked.
“That can’t be! You’ll lose the boy and . . .”

“
Slow down!” Tanesha said.
“Let me tell you what happened.”

Yvonne gave Tanesha another dark look, but
nodded that she would be quiet.

“
After all of that, the
teacher insisted on calling the police,” Tanesha said.

“
And did she
. . .” Yvonne started.

“
Let me
finish!” Tanesha’s voice was firm
but she laughed. Her mother loved Jabari completely. “The
police booked her on assault on a child. Then
. . .”

Tanesha leaned in.

“
Turns out the DA has been
working with Atlanta to put together a case,” Tanesha said. “They
have a lot of evidence, but they were waiting for it all to come
together. When this happened, they couldn’t wait
anymore.”

“
And?” Yvonne snorted her
indignation. “Did they finally
do
something?”

“
They charged her with
child endangerment for sending Jabari to Denver,” Tanesha said.
“They charged her for assault on a child for giving him the med
that she knew made him sick. They charged her for hitting him at
the school. And . . .”

Tanesha nodded.

“
The judge was still
there. You know, the one that’s on our custody case?” Tanesha
said.

Yvonne nodded. Her eyes were wide while she
took in everything Tanesha was saying.

“
He and the judge in
Atlanta did a final parental rights termination,” Tanesha
said.

Dionne cheered in the background. Yvonne
looked stunned.

“
She
still has a chance to get him back,” Tanesha said. “She has six
months to clean up her act, but she
’s already said
she’s not going to
take the parenting classes or anything.”

“
And my baby Jabari?”
Yvonne asked.

“
He’s here,” Tanesha said.
“At the house. We get him while you’re in Arizona, then we’ll share
him after that. Dionne too.”

Dionne cheered again in the background.

“
The judge said that he’s
never seen a child who had so many people who wanted to love him.”
Tanesha smiled. “That’s our boy.”

Yvonne bit her lip and looked worried.

“
You don’t seem happy,”
Tanesha said.

“
What if she steals him?”
Yvonne asked.

“
She’s not going to be
doing anything for a while,” Tanesha said. “She’ll be in jail here
until she makes bail . . .”

“
But
. . .”

“
Schmidty
filed the papers saying
that she defrauded Jer,” Tanesha said.

“
What?” Yvonne
asked.

“
We
found his birth certificate, or
Schmidty
did,” Tanesha said. “Jabari
is two and a half, just like you thought.”

“
I
knew
it!” Yvonne said.
“
Jeraine
was
chatty like that, even when he was a little thing.”

“
What did she say?”
Dionne’s face came into view. “He’s not three?”

“
Not yet,” Tanesha
said.

Dionne’s face clouded over with rage.

“
I know,” Tanesha said.
“But we have to focus on going forward. Being angry isn’t going to
make it better.”

Yvonne reached up and grabbed her friend’s
hand. They exchanged a look, and Dionne nodded.

“
With the fraud case, they
froze all of her assets,” Tanesha said. “She’s not going to be able
to make bail.”

“
What about the TV
people?” Yvonne asked. “Won’t they . . .”

“
They’ve
been ordered out of this entire mess,” Tanesha said. “Um
. . . injunction, I think that’s what it is.
Anyway,
Schmidty
said they can’t even talk to her.”

A small smile crept onto Yvonne’s face.

“
I don’t want to wish her
bad,” Tanesha said.

“
I do!” Dionne yelled from
behind Yvonne.

“
She’s Jabari’s birth
mother,” Tanesha said to Dionne.

“
I don’t care,” Dionne
said in the background. “She gave up that right when she almost
killed him.”

Yvonne smiled. Tanesha shook her head.
Yvonne leaned into the computer.

“
You think it’s over?”
Yvonne asked in a low tone.

“
For now,” Tanesha said.
“As long as Jabari’s in our lives, it won’t be over because it’s
never going to be over for him.”

Yvonne nodded.

“
And who knows?” Tanesha
smiled. “Maybe when he’s almost thirty, his mom will get her act
together and everyone will be happy. Stranger things have
happened.”

Yvonne gave her a broad smile.

“
For now, he’s here with
us,” Tanesha said. “Sam’s upstairs finishing the small sleeping
room so he can be up there with us. He and Jer already set up his
room on this floor.”

“
Ms. Yvonne! Ms. Yvonne!”
Jabari ran into the dining room from the kitchen. He climbed onto
Tanesha’s lap. “Guess what? Guess what?”

“
What?” Yvonne
asked.

“
You’re not Ms. Yvonne no
more,” Jabari said.

“
Anymore,” Rodney said from over Tanesha’s shoulder. Jabari
looked up at him. Rodney gave him a “say it”
nod
.

“
You’re not Ms. Yvonne
anymore,” Jabari said with a big smile into the computer
camera.

“
I’m not?” Yvonne gave her
best surprised face. “Why . . . what am I
then?”

“
Ga’ma,” Jabari
said.

Tears sprang to Yvonne’s eyes.

“
What about me?” Dionne
leaned over into the screen.

“
You’re Nana,” Jabari
said. “Is that okay, Nana? N-n-na-a-a-n-n-n-a.”

Dionne grinned at him.

“
Daddy told me I should
call you that,” Jabari said. “But it sticks in my
mouth.”

“
Jabari!”
Jeraine
yelled from the kitchen. “The frosting’s
done.”

Jabari gave a laugh and slipped off
Tanesha’s lap. He went running back to the kitchen.

“
He really looks just like
. . .” Yvonne started.

“
Jeraine
,” Dionne and Tanesha
said.

“
Rodney,” Yvonne
said.

Surprised, Tanesha scowled for a moment
before she nodded.

“
I think you’re right,”
Dionne said. “How . . .?”

“
Who knows?” Yvonne asked.
She gave Tanesha a big smile. “Now I know you have to go. We’re due
for massages. We’ve been positively slaving over the
phones.”

“
Slaving,” Dionne said
with a laugh.

“
Have fun!” Tanesha
said.

“
You happy, Tannie?”
Yvonne asked.

“
I am,” Tanesha
said.

“
Good.” Yvonne waved.
“We’ll be home in a shake! Love you!”

“
Love you!” Dionne yelled
from the background.

“
Love you!” Tanesha
clicked off the computer. She got up and hugged Rodney.

“
Can you believe it?”
Tanesha asked. “It all worked out.”

“
I can’t,” Rodney said.
“You know what I think.”

“
We should enjoy it
because things will go to shit soon enough?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I couldn’t have said it
better myself.” Rodney grinned.

“
Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”
Jabari called from the kitchen.

“
Come on,” Rodney said.
“Let’s go soak it up.”

They walked into the kitchen together.

~~~~~~~~

Monday evening — 7:45
p.m.

“
So there’s no word from
Jake?” Blane asked Heather through the glass wall that protected
him.

“
Nothing,” Heather
said.

“
How’s Jill holding up?”
Blane asked.

“
She seems fine, you
know,” Heather said. “She’s focused on what has to be done while
he’s gone.”

“
But she’s
okay?”

“
Oh, no, she’s not even
close to okay,” Heather said. “This is what she did when Trevor
disappeared or whatever. She focused on what she could
control.”

“
Trevor,” Blane said. “I
haven’t thought about him in . . .”

“
Years,” Heather said. “I
know. I haven’t thought about him either.”

“
And no one’s heard from
Jake,” Blane said.

Heather shook her head.

“
It’s so weird,” Blane
said. “Even when he lived in Maine, Sam used to hear from him at
least once a week. And Val?”

“
Has she heard?” Heather
shook her head. “Everyone’s pretty worried.”